Sean Combs’ name has never been far from controversy, even when he was adored as a musician, actor, producer, and celebrity. Whether as Puff Daddy, Puff, Diddy, Love, or another alias, Combs wore his humble origins in Harlem like a badge of honor, a universe where crime, rap, fame, and money combined in harmful ways. Today, after Harvey Weinstein, Sean occupies the place of the greatest predator in Hollywood. In addition to the federal charges, he is dealing with no less than 35 civil lawsuits, with accusations of rape, violence, sex trafficking and even murder. The orgies he led, called “freak offs”, involved minors and movie and music stars. It will be overwhelming.

Diddy’s trial begins in May 2025, but it’s unlikely he’ll be released from behind bars soon. Obviously, looking at his trajectory until his downfall has become urgent, and several documentaries have proposed to study it, with The Fall of Diddy being one of the main ones. Since every platform proposes to have its documentary about the case, Peakcock came out ahead with Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy.

He called himself a “bad boy forever,” but in 2024 this label took on other proportions. Since the end of 2023, his ex-girlfriend, Casandra “Cassie” Ventura, sued him for rape and physical abuse, among other charges, and the two reached an agreement to drop the lawsuit. However, while he claimed innocence, the video of Sean assaulting Cassie was shown on CNN, from then on the investigations into him gained strength, agility, and a new direction.

On March 25, 2024, the FBI raided his homes in Los Angeles and Miami and found so much evidence that the hip-hop mogul was eventually arrested in September after being accused of forced sex trafficking. Without the right to bail, he awaits trial.

Right off the bat, there is a problematic issue with Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy: if you are not familiar with the music and the hip-hop universe, you will be overwhelmed by all the references. The focus is on delving into Sean Combs’ childhood and youth and practically nothing about his award-winning musical career is evaluated: we only know about Sean the ambitious, Sean the opportunist, and Sean the businessman. Clearly afraid of lawsuits, there is no mention of the living artists with whom he was associated, nor of Sean “Jaz-Z” Carter or Beyoncé or Jennifer Lopez. We knew they wouldn’t talk, but they are virtually unmentioned and everyone is involved in the story.

Diddy’s defense also does not participate, so this is a documentary from only one side: the accusatory. What makes the job easy is the long trail of atrocities in Sean Combs’ life, so many that not even those he said were excluded reduce the volume. And believe me, the man really does seem to be a monster.

The 1h40 documentary features interviews with childhood friends of the artist, as well as former bodyguards, lawyers, journalists, and singer Al B. Sure, one of those who argues that the death of Sean’s ex-wife, Kim Porter, is at least suspicious.

The problem is that essentially – apart from some archive images – the script is superficial, exploring already known lurid details while ignoring Sean Combs’ successful career, whose parallel with what happened behind the scenes is what makes this story so atrocious. On the contrary, they “lighten” already known passages such as Combs’ alleged abuse at Howard University and his relationships with other men, and all the facts are what make him a bad guy.

The focus of Diddy: The Making of a Bad Boy is to profile him, with a troubled childhood in a fatherless home (who was murdered for being a police informant), a mother known for her partying and sexual freedom, and that, although Sean had the financial means to choose another path, he decided to be the “bad boy forever”. Basically, what we all already knew.

If you want even more details about an absolutely terrifying case, The Fall of Diddy and its four episodes are the best option. But, certainly, the worst will only be revealed when the legal proceedings begin, in May. Although public, the trial will not be televised. This leaves us speculating even more and “needing” better documentaries. We will have many.

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